After confirming that the person on the phone who introduced himself as Richard Castle was indeed who he claimed to be, and verifying that his daughter Alexis had been kidnapped shortly after arriving at Honolulu Airport on an afternoon flight (a fact Castle proved by having Jarvis send airport surveillance footage of Alexis getting into a car), Steve McGarrett, the leader of the Hawaii Task Force, agreed to help. He promised to gather his team immediately and head to the location where Alexis was being held to rescue her.
However, McGarrett firmly instructed Castle not to take any independent action, especially since Castle had informed him that a security team of 20 former Russian special forces was en route to Hawaii. McGarrett also emphasized this point when he learned that five of Castle's bodyguards had already accompanied Alexis to Hawaii. As a responsible leader, McGarrett made it clear that no uncoordinated actions were to take place under his watch.
While Castle appreciated McGarrett's diligence, he bluntly explained that his goal in contacting McGarrett was precisely to avoid acting alone. He acknowledged that dismantling the Japanese intelligence network spread across Hawaii was beyond the capacity of private forces. It would require official channels and local expertise, and Castle had no intention of overstepping boundaries in McGarrett's jurisdiction. Instead, Castle's focus was on politically striking back at the Japanese operatives, leaving the ground operations to McGarrett's team.
The two quickly came to an agreement: Castle would provide detailed intelligence on their targets, while McGarrett's task force would first rescue Alexis. Afterward, they would use Castle's intelligence to identify and neutralize all members of the Japanese intelligence network in Hawaii. Per their earlier phone discussion, once sufficient evidence was gathered, McGarrett would expose the activities of these operatives to the media, ensuring maximum public attention. This would give Castle the leverage he needed to escalate the matter politically and disrupt Watanabe Taro's military procurement delegation.
As McGarrett reviewed the extensive intelligence Castle had sent him—meticulously compiled to an astonishing level of detail—he was left speechless. With his background in naval intelligence before joining the SEALs, McGarrett was well-equipped to assess the credibility of such data. To his shock, the information appeared entirely authentic.
The thoroughness of the intelligence baffled McGarrett. If Alexis had only been kidnapped that afternoon, how could Castle have gathered such detailed information about the Japanese intelligence network in Hawaii in less than five hours?
It couldn't have come from domestic intelligence agencies like the FBI or Homeland Security. If they had this level of detail, there was no way such a network could have operated unnoticed until now. So where did Castle get this information?
The answer was simple: Castle had Jarvis, his AI, working at full capacity. Upon learning that the kidnappers were operatives from the Japanese Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, Castle lifted certain restrictions on Jarvis and ordered it to breach the Japanese intelligence database. Jarvis was tasked with extracting all details of the operatives stationed in Hawaii, even at the risk of being detected. Castle's intention was clear: he wanted to deliver a blow so devastating that it would leave the Japanese intelligence apparatus reeling.
With Jarvis operating at full capacity, the task was completed in record time. Moreover, Castle also employed his "Eye of God" supercomputing system to cross-check and confirm the data. For someone with Castle's resources—an AI, a supercomputer, and cutting-edge surveillance systems—what seemed impossible for others was routine.
While McGarrett was marveling at Castle's ability to gather such intelligence from thousands of miles away, he knew it was an incredible stroke of fortune. As Castle had promised, he also offered to help McGarrett uncover the truth behind his father's murder, a lingering mystery that had haunted him since Victor Hesse's death had cut off further leads. This offer made Castle's proposal even more appealing to McGarrett.
Despite the bizarre circumstances, McGarrett recognized this as an opportunity to not only rescue Alexis but also deal a significant blow to the foreign intelligence network operating on U.S. soil. Castle's intelligence had already pinpointed the exact location where Alexis was being held, as well as the surrounding positions of her five bodyguards. If Castle had wanted, he could have simply ordered his private security to storm the location and rescue Alexis. However, he chose to involve McGarrett to ensure the larger mission of dismantling the network was executed through proper channels.
McGarrett quickly gathered his team—Danny Williams, Chin Ho Kelly, and Kono Kalakaua—and briefed them on the situation. He explained that Castle's daughter had been kidnapped shortly after arriving at Honolulu Airport and that the perpetrators were believed to be operatives from the Japanese Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office.
The news shocked the team, especially when McGarrett revealed that all the intelligence, including detailed profiles and locations of the operatives, had been provided by Castle, who was still in New York. To illustrate, McGarrett showed them airport surveillance footage sent by Castle.
"This is definitely from today," confirmed Kono, the team's tech expert, after reviewing the footage. "But how did someone sitting in New York get access to this video? This is supposed to be restricted to law enforcement and us!"
The team was even more astonished when they saw the detailed profiles of the Japanese operatives, complete with addresses and an official watermark from the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. The realization hit hard: Castle must have access to a world-class hacker capable of breaching the most secure databases.
Meanwhile, Watanabe Taro, the mastermind behind the kidnapping, was indulging in petty revenge. Satisfied that Alexis had been successfully captured, Watanabe decided not to contact Castle immediately. Instead, he relished the thought of making Castle sweat overnight. This delay, born of Watanabe's misplaced confidence in his scheme's secrecy, would prove to be a grave error.
Watanabe's behavior exemplified a long-standing flaw often attributed to his nation's leadership: meticulous attention to tactics but a glaring lack of strategic vision. Since the Meiji era, and especially after Ito Hirobumi's time, Japan's leadership had repeatedly failed in strategic planning—a deficiency Watanabe now personified.
Confident that his plans were undetectable, Watanabe delayed his ransom call. Unbeknownst to him, Castle and McGarrett were already orchestrating a counterattack that would turn his scheme into a catastrophic blunder.
(End of Chapter)
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